Your Galaxy smartwatch needs to be paired to a smartphone before you can start using it. And if you change your phone, you have to go through the pairing and setup process all over again, which is standard fare for any Bluetooth device. The Galaxy Wearable app makes connecting to a new Galaxy smartwatch (or wireless earbuds) pretty simple, but it’s not perfect. There are two improvements in particular that we would love to see in the pairing process for connecting Samsung’s smartwatches to a Galaxy smartphone.
Pairing the watch to a new phone shouldn’t require a reset
If you ever upgrade your phone while keeping your existing Galaxy smartwatch, the latter has to be reset before it can be used with the new phone. This is the case with the Apple Watch and Android Wear smartwatches as well, and while you can backup and restore most of your data, it’s unclear why resetting the smartwatch when connecting to a new phone is necessary.
If the same Samsung account is logged in on both the watch and the phone, security shouldn’t be a concern. We can only assume the reset process is set in place to avoid issues with existing apps that are already installed on your watch but won’t be there on your new phone, but it’s still quite a frustrating limitation that we wish Samsung could do away with, considering many customers upgrade their phones more often than their smartwatch.
Scanning a QR code/watch face to start pairing
This is a simpler one. On the Apple Watch, you can start pairing an iPhone by simply scanning a watch face on the Apple Watch’s display with the iPhone’s camera. This is something we wish Samsung would bring to its Galaxy smartwatches as well. The current pairing process requires you to select your smartwatch model in the Galaxy Wearable app and then match pairing codes on the watch and the phone. It works pretty well, but it could be a lot more streamlined and require fewer taps on the screen if you could simply scan a watch face with the phone’s camera to get going.
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Pairing the watch to a new phone shouldn’t require a reset
If you ever upgrade your phone while keeping your existing Galaxy smartwatch, the latter has to be reset before it can be used with the new phone. This is the case with the Apple Watch and Android Wear smartwatches as well, and while you can backup and restore most of your data, it’s unclear why resetting the smartwatch when connecting to a new phone is necessary.
If the same Samsung account is logged in on both the watch and the phone, security shouldn’t be a concern. We can only assume the reset process is set in place to avoid issues with existing apps that are already installed on your watch but won’t be there on your new phone, but it’s still quite a frustrating limitation that we wish Samsung could do away with, considering many customers upgrade their phones more often than their smartwatch.
Scanning a QR code/watch face to start pairing
This is a simpler one. On the Apple Watch, you can start pairing an iPhone by simply scanning a watch face on the Apple Watch’s display with the iPhone’s camera. This is something we wish Samsung would bring to its Galaxy smartwatches as well. The current pairing process requires you to select your smartwatch model in the Galaxy Wearable app and then match pairing codes on the watch and the phone. It works pretty well, but it could be a lot more streamlined and require fewer taps on the screen if you could simply scan a watch face with the phone’s camera to get going.
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